Is killer of Sherrill girl still mentally ill?

David Trebilcock could return to court next month to determine if he still is the same dangerous mentally ill person who killed his former girlfriend’s 6-year-old daughter in 2011.

ROCCO LaDUCA

David Trebilcock could return to court next month to determine if he still is the same dangerous mentally ill person who killed his former girlfriend’s 6-year-old daughter in 2011.

While the state Office of Mental Health has filed for a retention order to continue Trebilcock’s psychiatric treatment, Trebilcock has since asked for a hearing to explore why state-affiliated psychiatrists believe he should remain at the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center downstate.

What isn’t known yet is whether Trebilcock, 32, believes he has been cured in the two years since he claimed God told him to kill Lauren Belius in Sherrill because she was the antichrist.

Trebilcock’s delusions were among the factors Judge Michael Dwyer considered before finding that an apparent mental illness prevented Trebilcock from being held criminally responsible for Lauren’s stabbing death on July 19, 2011.

Instead, Trebilcock was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment indefinitely until his mental condition improves. As Trebilcock comes up for his one-year evaluation in September, a finding that he remains dangerously mentally ill means that his next evaluation would come two years from now, and every two years after that.

Dwyer has not yet scheduled a hearing date.

For Lauren’s family, the thought that Trebilcock might believe his condition has improved only further suggests to the girl’s mother, Allison Danough, that her ex-boyfriend has been faking his mental disorder.

And if that’s the case, Danough believes he got away with murder.

“Going to this hearing and having to face him again, and every two years or more until he’s released, is just another blow to our hearts and minds – another piece of the punishment handed down to us by Judge Dwyer,” Danough said, still angry over the outcome of Trebilcock’s non-jury trial.

“Another round of pain and suffering to our family that’s lost so much to a monster, and the result of an inadequate and poorly handled trial that let him escape the punishment he deserved and asked for,” Danough said, referring to Trebilcock’s own recorded remarks that he should go to prison for killing Lauren. “We feel sick and disgusted with how many rights are given to a child murderer, and how few the ones who loved Lauren have.”

If Trebilcock is found to no longer be dangerously mentally ill, he potentially could be released.

Because of that possibility, local prosecutors and Dwyer have asked that Oneida County Court always maintain jurisdiction over whether Trebilcock is ever released.

Since Trebilcock is being treated at the Mid-Hudson psychiatric center – nearly 200 miles from Utica – any retention hearings would take place in Orange County, where the facility is located. But since Dwyer has asked to keep jurisdiction, Dwyer will preside over Trebilcock’s hearings as long as he is judge.

“Anything that was going to happen, we wanted to have happen here,” said First Assistant District Attorney Dawn Catera Lupi, who believes Trebilcock should have been convicted of murder. “To me, it was important for the hearing to be held in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred, because this court is familiar with the facts of the case.”

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